It's a very hard one : somehow, it consists in predicting the future and ensure that projects are completed on time and within budget without sacrificing quality. Various feedback from different industries all show the same trend : overcosts and costly delays are more than common and the more complex the project the worst the situation.

I'd like to share my experiment with a tool borrowed to agile project management techniques on a fixed price contract : the burndown chart. It helped me to get more insights on how things went on and to fix the issue. In order to maximize the value, I'll illustrate the experiment with 2 case studies, and provide the data within an Excel spreadsheet.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the amount of tasks to be performed ? Have you ever felt having lost the meaning / the big picture from which all that work stem ? I can feel that the answer is undoubtedly "Yes".